Goodbye For Now
by vausefan
Summary: Piper Chapman has done her time. She ventures back out into the open world, leaving her raven-haired girlfriend behind. What will happen to their relationship as it gets harder to be there for one another? Vauseman, rated M in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** **Hi guys, so this is my first story for vauseman, so any support would be greatly appreciated:) I'm not sure how often I'll upload but hopefully quite a lot. I've written so many fics for other fandoms, so hopefully a little experience means this won't be too bad haha ;)**

 **Also italics mean a flashback:)**

 **Enjoy!**

"So that's the last box.." Piper whispers to her girlfriend, only sadness present in her voice.

"I can't believe you're leaving."

"Me neither..."

A single tear escapes one of Alex's emerald green eyes, and she doesn't even bother wiping it away. She avoids all eye contact with her girlfriend, afraid it'll only make her cry more.

"Please don't cry Al, you'll set me off." Piper says chuckling, however her voice breaks.

Alex exhales and wipes the stray tear, and wraps her arms around her partner's small frame.

"You have no idea how much I'm gonna miss you Pipes."

Piper's heart skips a beat at the nickname, she wonders how she's going to deal with not having Alex by her side for 2 months.

* * *

 _"Al I have something to tell you.." Piper played with the hem of her khaki shirt, a nervous habit she picked up when she was younger._

 _It was Friday evening after work, the two girls had been spending time in Piper's bunk ever since work for that week had finished. They had been playing cards, cuddling, making out and it was actually as if they were young again._

 _"What is it Pipes?" Alex took a seat next to Piper in her bed, instinctively grabbed her hand and started tracing her index finger with her thumb._

 _"So...I-I'm getting out, very soon." Piper uttered, nerves evident in her voice._

 _The blonde was petrified. What would this mean for her and Alex? How much time does Alex even have left?_

 _Piper's sentence got extended as Caputo managed to find out about the panty business, she got an extra 2 years. To some people at Litchfield that was nothing, however she had spent a week crying non-stop because of it, and Alex was there the whole time comforting her and whispering words of love. She really needed her at that point and she knew she could rely on Alex for absolutely anything._

 _"How soon?" Alex whispered, almost inaudibly._

 _"Al-"_

 _"How soon, Piper?"_

 _Piper paused, afraid of her girlfriend's reaction to her next words._

 _"Three days."_

 _"Fuck! You didn't think to tell me sooner?" Alex's voice broke, Piper knew she was crying without having to look at her._

 _"I'm sorry Alex, please. I was so scared, I didn't want to upset you and I don't even know how much time you have left."_

 _"You were scared? It's not like you can change your release date, I'm not going to be mad that you're getting out. You need a life, Pipes."_

 _"I just didn't want to hurt you...I'm sorry."_

 _It was silent for a few moments before Alex spoke up once again._

 _"2 months." Alex muttered._

 _"What?"_

 _"I have two months left in this shithole."_

 _"Wait, seriously Al? I was expecting like another year babe, why are you so upset?"_

 _"Just because you didn't tell me until now, I would have made the most of my last week with you by my side everyday. Now we have three days before we have to rely on phone calls and visits!"_

 _"I'm sorry Al, we can make the most of our time starting now okay? You can feel sad when I'm gone but for now can we just..." Piper trailed off her words and just leaned into her girlfriend, her head resting on her lap. Alex was playing with her somehow still shiny blonde hair._

 _"You're lucky I love you, otherwise I'd still be pretty pissed off." Alex informed, planting a kiss upon Piper's forehead._

 _"I love you too, Al. And whatever happens, we're going to stay together, okay?"_

 _Alex sighed._

 _"We're definitely soulmates, kid. How else do you think we ended up together even after Paris? After you fucked that kangaroo? After all the other shit that's tried to tear us apart, we've found each other one way or another." Alex smirked._

 _"True, true. Although for the record I didn't actually fuck her."_

 _"I know, Pipes. I know." Alex leaned down and pressed her lips to her girlfriend's, and Piper beamed up at her, all of her insecurity over her relationship suddenly vanished._

 _They'd be just fine._

* * *

"I heart you." She whispers.

After hearing those meaningful words all of Alex's composure is gone. Multiple tears spill and she doesn't even care anymore, she has a right to cry anyway.

"Alex please sweetie, it's only 2 months until you're out as well!" Piper says, trying to cheer Alex up, although she's now crying as well.

She captures Alex's full lips into a long and passionate kiss, not caring about the C.O's on watch. It's probably up there with the best kisses they've ever shared. Their salty tears are streaming down their faces and mixing together. It's like they've got all day, however it's actually 2:57pm meaning that they have a poxy three minutes before Piper Chapman is a free woman, once again.

"I heart you too..." The raven-haired woman speaks after the kiss breaks.

They share an embrace. It's innocent, comfortable and warm. Neither of them want to ever let go. Everything around them vanishes. They forget they're in a prison, they forget that Piper's leaving, and they forget all of the pure shit they've been through over the course of their relationship.

That's just the effect they still have on each other.

Every touch a firework. As cliché as it is.

The love they share for each other is like no other. They can't even explain it. It's so, so extraordinary but so, so scary.

However, a good scary. A thrilling scary.

So once again, they're lost in the depths of one another.

"Chapman, time to go!" A C.O shouts, breaking the daze the two women are current in the midst of. "Break it up ladies."

So many exchanges of words were shared in that moment. So many 'I love you's, 'I promise I'll wait's, 'I'll miss you's. When finally, Piper finds the energy to pull away. She whispers '2 months baby' and Alex smiles.

2 months.

2 months.

2 months.

She repeats the words under her breath until the sight of the blonde is gone. She thinks of the visits they'll still have. She thinks of the phone calls.

It's not like this was the last time they were ever going to see each other.

She searches, and finds a small bit of hope within herself.

Maybe this will get her through that 2 months.

Maybe she'll be okay.


	2. Chapter 2

Two days passed.

Two days of moping around for Alex, and two days of complete and utter irritation for Piper. Honestly, she had forgotten just how WASPy her family was. The blonde knew that she shouldn't be complaining, because she could still be in the shithole they call Litchfield prison, however having to stay with her parents until she could move into her own apartment was way too much for her. She had already started looking at apartments for herself and eventually Alex, and she even had a viewing in a couple of days. Also, she knew her parents would be more than willing to pay for it, anything to get their criminal of a daughter out of their way.

Alex spent most of those two days just sleeping, or at least trying to. She couldn't get over the fear of the unknown - how she hadn't been able to contact her partner and she had no idea what was happening to her at this precise moment. She didn't understand how she was able to put up with this for years after Piper left her in Paris, but not now after only a measly two days.

The tall raven-haired woman was in the midst of reading Piper's favourite novel when she was interrupted by one of the guards.

"Vause!"

"Yeah?"

"Counsellor Berdie wants to speak with you right now. I suggest you go to her office."

After giving a brief nod Alex put down her book, making sure to mark her page, and swiftly walked down the dorms and out into the corridor. She had a feeling this was about Piper being able to visit, or maybe her being able to make phone calls now the paperwork was all sorted. She wasted no time in going to meet her counsellor.

She got to the door of Berdie's office and lightly knocked twice, earning a small 'come in!' from the counsellor. She opened the door to reveal a smiling guard.

"Vause, you're here."

"What is it?" Alex asked impatiently, she needed to just get to the point.

"It's about Chapman. You should be able to call her now, here is her number." The woman handed Alex a small piece of paper with a number on it.

Alex grinned. "Thanks so much. Did you manage to sort out visitation?"

"I was just getting to that." Berdie gave a knowing grin to the tall woman, sensing her excitement and urgency to see and speak to her lover. "She'll be able to visit…tomorrow it looks like. I'll let you give her a call and arrange it."

"That's great! Thank you Berdie."

Alex jumped out of her chair and speed walked to the phones, only to find that they were all being used.

"Fuck!" Alex yelled, clenching her fists. "Are any of you almost done?"

A small woman with ginger hair and an innocent face quickly put the phone down and ran away, causing Alex to have a 'what the fuck?' kind of look and extend her arms out either side of her. She took the now spare phone and looked at the number in her hand, careful to type in every single number correctly because she could not accidentally call the wrong number - that would be embarrassing and annoying. Especially considering she had been waiting for this moment for what felt like weeks.

She pressed 'call' and after a couple of rings she heard a pre-recorded voice.

 ** _'An inmate from Litchfield federal prison is attempting to contact you, to accept this call please press 1'._**

Piper squealed at the thought of finally being able to talk to her girlfriend.

"Piper honey, is everything okay?" Carol Chapman peeked her head around the doorframe of her daughter's temporary bedroom after hearing the short scream.

"Yes mom, it's just I got a phone call from someone." The blonde answered vaguely but with a slight smile.

"Please don't say you're staying in touch with your prison people, you're nothing like them Piper!"

The younger blonde just rolled her eyes, something she had found herself doing a lot lately, closed the door on her mother and proceeded to press '1' on her phone.

"Alex! Shit, thank god you're now able to call babe."

"Hey Pipes…fuck it's been difficult without you." When she heard her partner's raspy voice on the other end of the phone, that was all it took for tears of utter happiness to start spilling out of her blue eyes.

"I would say the same but I know that complaining about being out is the worst thing I could do right now..." She sniffed.

"No, I think the worst thing you could do right now would be ending this call." Alex chuckled. "Hey are you crying?"

"I'm just so fucking happy to hear your voice Al, you wouldn't believe how much I've missed you. How the fuck were we able to deal with all the years after Paris if we can't deal with two days?"

"I was thinking the same earlier, actually." Laughed the taller woman.

"So, how are you holding up? Like honestly - don't just say that you're fine because you know it'll make me feel better."

"Ugh you got me. Not very well, Nicky keeps telling me to suck it up because I've just been in bed doing fuck all. I even said I was sick so I didn't have to go to work."

Piper laughed a bit. "Oh Al, hopefully two months will go by quickly. Especially considering we can now phone call as often as we like. It sucks that I can't call you though. Oh and do you know when I'll be able to visit? I need to see you more than anything."

"I do actually. I've just come back from Berdie and she said that you'll be able to come and visit tomorrow." Alex smiled.

Piper sighed in relief. "Oh my god, I'm so happy."

"Me too. So now the time will go even _faster_ than you just said, because I can see you up to twice a week." Now Alex is the one to start crying. As she wipes her tears, Nicky passes.

"Ugh Vause I knew you'd gone soft! That Chapman?"

"Yeah." Alex smiles as Nicky grabs the phone.

"Hey blondie! I should be pissed at you for turning Vause into a mess, but I was hoping that now you're out you'd be able to transfer me some money or somethin'?" Nicky jokes.

"Fuck off Nichols." Piper laughs. "In all seriousness though, can you please be sure to take care of Al for me? It's only for two months and I need to be sure that someone is looking out for her now that I can't."

"You know that I was doing that anyway Chapman, don't sweat it okay? I'll take care of your 'companion' as you called it. How is it out there anyway?"

"It's…fine." Piper lies.

"It's okay, soon your sexual frustrations will be catered for by our tallest dyke over here. Then you can stop lying to me."

Nicky winks at Alex and uses her free hand to get two fingers and move them back and forth.

"Great thanks Nichols." Piper says sarcastically with a laugh. "Can I have Alex back now? I don't want to use up her phone credit, do make sure she gives you my number though."

"See ya, not lesbian!"

Nicky hands Alex the phone back with a smile and walks away towards the dorms.

"Thank god she's gone." Alex laughs.

"I miss having someone funny like her around." Piper sighs. "Anyway, I'm gonna go because I don't want to waste all your phone credit."

"It's not like I have anyone else to call though." Alex smiles. "But I'll see you tomorrow, gorgeous."

"Can't wait." It was silent for a few moments. "I love you."

"I love you too. Bye Pipes."

"Bye Al."

Alex puts the phone down, and is in a much happier mood than she had been earlier. She skipped back to her dorm and put the phone number in a safe place, although she was pretty sure she already had it memorised.

She sat in her bed and opened her book once again, planning to read a chapter or two more before dinner.

Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

 **Hey guys! First of all, thank you so much for the follows, favourites and reviews on the first chapter! I think that my biggest focus on this story is to make the chapters a good length, I** **always struggle with that and they're usually too short. Also, I've decided that I'm going to try my best to upload weekly.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Byeeeeee!**


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